I had recently heard of a cycling route South of Escondido in the hills called Bandy Canyon.  I downloaded a route from someone else on Ride With GPS and rode it a few weeks ago.  At the top of the climb I was pleasantly surprised to find a crop of wineries that I never knew existed.  How this has gone unnoticed to me since 2004 is beyond my comprehension.

Following that ride I looked at Google Maps and found even more wineries.  Today I set out to get some miles in, a few feet of climbing, and scout out future tastings across that region known as Highland Valley.

The beginning of the route takes me through the San Pasqual Valley agricultural reserve that is filled with sod farms, orange orchards, a large dairy, and more.  However, instead of tracking back against the former route that I downloaded I made up my own.

My route sent me down a shortcut across the valley instead of forcing me onto Highway 78 with heavy traffic for a few miles before turning to start the ascent.  This turned out to be fairly entertaining as it was 50% dirt and 50% paved.  Apparently, it is a popular shortcut.  I was surprised how much traffic I encountered as I carefully navigated the washboard road between sod fields with my little 25 centimeter tires.  Farm trucks, BMW’s, and more all passed me on this stretch that was less than a mile long.

Leaving the dirt road shortcut behind me, it was time for the ascent up Bandy Canyon to the Highland Valley wine region.  It was about a mile and a half climb that started with a gradual grade.

As the ascent continued it featured more bends and a much steeper grade rising far above the valley below.  In other words, my preferred kind of cycling habitat.

At the top I passed the first two wineries on my right.  The first was Highland Valley which pretty much looks like someones house with an acre or two of grapes out front.  Tasting hours are only on the Sabbath it appears.

The road then bends to the left and in a few hundred feet is the next winery.  Espinosa Vineyards seems to be a bit more of an enterprise as they are open Friday through Sunday.

In about another half mile I finally made it to Highland Valley Rd and made a left.  On the right, the first winery is Altipiano with flexible hours taped over a previous hard stop time frame.  With sunset as the wine cut off, possibly vampires are involved in this business of fermentation?  With a closer inspection of their wine offerings on their website all but one bottle is red.  Yup, wine making vampires is my guess.

Next up is Domane Artefact.  They clearly won the award for the best sign yet on the ride.  I’ll have to go back to see how the wine is.

After Domane Artefact, the road gets very steep with a canopy of oaks and sometimes avocado trees.  It winds up the hill until you come to Cordiano Winery.

They win for the best sign and the best view.  Perched on top of the mountain, this has to be one of the best views in San Diego County.  With this kind of view, they don’t have to produce the best wine that’s for sure.  They are taking advantage of it as they are open Wednesday through Sunday with the wine drinking staged on tiered patios.  A return visit is clearly order.

Following Cordiano there is more climbing up to Ramona.  I expected to find more wineries, but didn’t.  However, I did find one that had a sign out front saying they had submitted an application to sell alcoholic beverages.  This looks to be a very large operation that has yet to materialize.  They had beautiful ponds, waterfalls, and it seemed like a ton of acreage planted with young vines.  As you can see in the Google Earth photo below, the expanse of vines is promising and someone has a deep checkbook.

The mountain view from here is also truly spectacular!

I was planning on riding past a few more vineyards once I got up to Highway 67 in Unfortunately, there was no paved shoulder on a road that has a lot of very fast cars with heavy traffic. In other words, not my preferred kind of cycling habitat.

I turned around and was surprised to see that I had only really gone 24 miles and hadn’t climbed much more than 2,400 feet.  Since my original plan was to get in 60 miles I enjoyed the descent back down into the valley and headed over to Elfin Forest.  After that I climbed up to Double Peak Park to get the rest of my climbing in.

I didn’t plan on riding from Escondido to Ramona over to San Elijo through San Marcos and back home.  It did the trick though.  By the time I arrived home it was basically 60 miles exactly with 5,400 feet of climbing.  A good way to start the year.